Generally, beverage bottles go through a bottle facility and are loaded into trays which are then palletized. A pallet may include multiple layers of trays of a single product, such as soft drinks or beer of the same brand. Trays in successive layers are stacked or cross-stacked on top of each other, with the bottles bearing most of the load of the above-stacked trays. These bulk pallets are then typically stored in a warehouse for shipping to retailers.
One recent advance in the distribution area is a use of a product handling device known as the Tygard Claw® manufactured by Tygard Machine and Manufacturing Company of Pittsburgh, Pa. The Tygard Claw can be installed to the front or the side of a conventional fork lift carriage, and enables a distributor to pick from a bulk pallet of product one layer at a time. Briefly, the Tygard Claw is a large clamping device with four individual walls that approach a layer of product on a pallet squarely and uniformly by each wall moving toward and away from a pallet layer in a translating motion. The actuators for the walls are equipped so that the walls are touch sensitive in order to lift the product without damage. These clamping devices such as the Tygard Claw enables distributors to assemble shipments of product without the need to manually pick and move layers of product.
In many cases depending on the particular crate and its contents, the crate may be deformed to point where the beverage containers loaded in the crate contact each other. Crates under these conditions may eventually fail due to the repeated stress, deflection, and deformation.
Consequently, there is a need for an improved bottle crate which is able to withstand the automated handling devices described above. The improved crate should be able to withstand the repeated stress to which it is subjected by such automated handling devices. The improved crate should also have relatively less deflection and deformation and improved durability than present crates in order to enhance and lengthen the life of the crate.